Input materials which are commonly processed and separated by high intensity magnetic separating conveyors commonly comprise a random mixture or conglomeration of non-ferrous parts, pieces, and fragments, along with stainless steel items, parts, and pieces. The intermixed stainless steel items often include nickel within their metal alloys, in addition to chromium, for enhancement of the alloy's corrosion resistance. Such nickel additives within the stainless steel alloy substantially nullifies the metal's paramagnetic character and causes the metal to have a very low level of magnetic susceptibility. Though such nickel and chromium stainless steel alloys are dominantly ferrous, they are commonly described as non-magnetic.
In many circumstances, materials which are to be processed by a high magnetic strength separator conveyor are preliminarily passed through a conventional low magnetic intensity separation process in order to initially remove the material's paramagnetic or magnetically susceptible ferrous parts, fragments, and pieces. As a result of performance of such preliminary low intensity magnetic separator, the less magnetically susceptible stainless steel parts and fragments within the mixture are made amenable to separate separation via higher strength magnets. A high intensity magnetic separating conveyors are known to be utilized in the performance of such subsequent separating step.
The effectiveness of such high intensity magnetic separating conveyors in performing such second phase separation of the stainless steel parts and pieces is commonly degraded by the continued presence within the parts mixture of non-magnetic plastic debris and fibrous material which is impregnated or coated with ferrous dust and filings or microscopic bits of tramp iron. Such ferrous dust coated non-ferrous debris particles often remain within the parts mixture following the initial low magnetic intensity magnetic separation step, and such debris remains susceptible to unwanted subsequent extraction and separation along with the stainless steel parts during the subsequent conveyor actuated high intensity magnetic separation step. Concurrent final phase separations of the stainless steel and the ferrous dust coated non-ferrous debris undesirably fouls and contaminates the stainless steel output of the conveyor based high magnetic intensity separation step.
The instant inventive magnetic separating conveyor solves or ameliorates such stainless steel output contamination problem by mechanically integrating within the separator conveyor a reverse air flow generating apparatus which is capable of forwardly winnowing the ferrous dust coated non-ferrous debris at the point of magnetic release of the stainless steel parts and pieces.